Crossing the border with Blue Jays beat reporter Jordan Bastian.

Game 147 lineups: Jays at Red Sox

After an unexpected absence, I’ve finally returned to the Jays beat. While home for my son’s first birthday party, my Grandma Bastian, Maggie, was rushed to the hospital and was in a coma for more than a week. I stayed home to be with family and at her side.

My “Grammy” — never called her Grandma or Gram — passed away on Sunday at the age of 94. She lived a long and amazing life. Her death wasn’t necessarily unexpected, but it did not make the past couple weeks any easier. It was good to be home.

But, it is also good to be back working.

Grandma Bastian did manage to do e-mail — she had a small machine strictly for text — but she never got the hang of using the internet. That was a shame, because she was a big baseball fan and couldn’t get to my stories online. She loved reading the sports section of the Chicago Tribune on a daily basis, though.

Sometimes she’d cut out newspaper clips and mail them to me. A few times, I’d print out some of my stories and mail them her way so she could see what I had been up to as well. She remembered Babe Ruth and loved telling me tales of listening to Cubs games on the radio in the 1930s.

Her stories always had me in awe and were a big reason why I wanted to be surrounded by baseball for a living. That’s why it’s nice to be back at the ballpark today.

2 Comments

I’m a long-time lurker, but I wanted to finally post something to express my condolences. that your family is very close, and that family is very important to you, so while I am saddened to hear of your lose, I’m relieved that you were able to be with them at such a difficult time.

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